


sunflower

by Beyond_the_Grace



Series: kindness blooms [4]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Book 1: Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, GOOD CHILDHOOD, Gen, Hermione Granger Critical, Hufflepuff Harry Potter, Manipulative Albus Dumbledore, Rare Pairings, Ron Weasley Critical, intentional lowercase
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-13
Updated: 2020-10-13
Packaged: 2021-03-07 22:01:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,910
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26864803
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Beyond_the_Grace/pseuds/Beyond_the_Grace
Summary: harry has started his first year as a hufflepuff but not all is as it seems; with sneaky slytherins, priggish professors and a dastardly plan to unravel harry knows his first year will be anything but boring.an au in which harry was raised by regulus black and petunia evans rather than in an abusive household and the effects this has on the wizarding saviour.reading the others in the series is not essential to understand this but i've been told they're a good read any way ;)
Relationships: Harry Potter & Blaise Zabini, Neville Longbottom & Harry Potter, Petunia Evans Dursley & Harry Potter, Regulus Black & Harry Potter, Regulus Black/Petunia Evans Dursley, Theodore Nott & Harry Potter
Series: kindness blooms [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1773583
Comments: 6
Kudos: 264





	sunflower

**Author's Note:**

> i wrote this instead of watching a lecture but in fairness I'm also paying 9k to watch prerecorded zoom calls so...... uni's fun

harry was proud to be in hufflepuff. he knew he was expected to be disappointed, his place as boy hero meant he was supposed to be a gryffindor like his parents or at least ravenclaw, but as harry walked into the warm wooden room of the hufflepuff common room he knew this was his home away from home. he'd always thought his home with his uncle and aunt was pretty homely but the soft sofas and armchairs with the great roaring fireplace looked like something from a story book. he was tired anyway but the second he walked into this room he felt like he could just curl up like a cat somewhere and be perfectly happy staying there forever. luckily after their head of house - professor sprout- gave a speech welcoming them and assuring them she'd be around and if not the prefects would help, they were able to go to sleep.

they went down the stairs on the right side to the first year boy dorms to find them just as cozy as the common room had been. there were small round windows at the top of the room and each boy had a section of the room to himself. the furniture was all done in dark wood with the curtains around each bed a marmalade coloured tapestry. all in all it was cozy. the boys were quick to crash, making no effort at small talk and instead falling asleep instantly. the last thought harry had before his head hit the pillow was how excited he was to write his aunt and uncle about this.

his excitement didn’t last.

the first week was difficult for harry. the other two boys in his dorm made fast friends and whilst the girls in his house were nice it was difficult as they too had formed a solid friendship. in classes he sat alone except in herbology where he was forced to pair up with a bossy girl with wild hair who was incredibly unpopular in her own house. he would have felt bad for her if she hadn't been so demanding as they worked and if she hadn't blatantly asked about his parents. even though people stared at him more than they spoke to him at least most didn't take pleasure in reminding him he was an orphan. plus he had very little time for herbology; despite his uncle's many array of flower themed tattoos that had been the subject regulus had informed him of the least and so harry felt rather lost on the whole thing. the bushy haired girl's insistence that she'd do all the work made things all the more difficult. the only respite was classes with the ravenclaws.

sue li seemed to be in a similar place to harry in terms of being the last one left in their houses and so the two always sat with each other through the classes they shared. sue was very quiet and so they did most of their work in silence. they weren't friends but they enjoyed silent time together. the world was far too loud. 

"potter!" the potions professor had snapped at harry on their first day of class. "what would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?"

"draught of living death."

"where would you look if I told you to find me a bezoar?"

"the stomach of a goat." harry replied, mentally thanking regulus for his insistence that harry have a passable knowledge of things. potions had been one of regulus's favourite subjects which meant harry had to know it fairly well, at least enough to pass through the first term without trying.

"what is the difference, potter, between monkshood and wolfsbane?" the bat like teacher asked, his pale skin making him all the more sinister.

"they're the same thing."

"a point from hufflepuff for cheating." and like that it became clear that snape truly hated harry.

sue li's smile wasn't enough to sooth the worry.

it took harry till midway through october to make his first real friend at hogwarts. in that time he had carried on his acquaintance with his house mates and sue li, was still glared at by ron and mocked by draco, and kept up regular letters to his family (which included an overly detailed account of how to tie shoelaces from iris who had just figured it out). but most importantly herbology was still a challenge which is how harry ended up in the library on a saturday morning trying to figure out how to start his essay which was due that tuesday. he was reading and rereading the same page over and over again trying to figure out what the hell it meant when a figure sat next to him and spoke.

"i want that book." harry looked up to see a dark skinned boy who he vaguely recognized from slytherin though he wouldn't be able to come up with his name.

"i'm using it." harry replied, he was going to complete this essay if it killed him.

"you've been on that page for the past ten minutes, either you'll memorize it or you’re trying to set it on fire with your mind." the boy's voice was smooth but with an arrogant tone to it which suggested he was more than used to getting his own way.

"we can share it?" harry offered. he was keeping the book but if this boy was willing to then he'd have no issue.

the boy, who turned out to be called blaise, and harry spent the whole day in the library finishing off all their homework and helping each other out. by the end of that saturday harry was pretty happy to say he had his first friend at hogwarts. blaise was smart and quick witted and whilst he could be cruel at times there was a part of him that reminded him of iris. harry helped blaise with potions and blaise helped him with herbology and by the end they both felt like they had learnt more from each other than in the last month at school. harry didn't want it to end. but it did.

a tall skinny boy with a sharp face and a bitchy expression came over just before dinner looking stressed and a little bit pissed. harry tensed slightly as the boy came storming over but blaise simply smirked at the boy.

"zabini where the hell have you been? you were supposed to be at daphne's poetry club an hour ago." the boy's voice came out whiny, only emphasizing his rattish features.

"calm down theo, me and harry here were just doing our homework." blaise waved a hand in easy dismissal of the boy who seemed to get more annoyed at the gesture.

"you could have been having tea with the minister for all i care!" the boy's pale face was slowly flushing red. "you left me with a pissed off daphne the whole hour."

"i'll make it up to you, i promise." harry was impressed at the placating tone blaise took to handle this boy. "now either go to dinner or join us, it's not proper to be standing there and having an aneurysm."

"fine but only because i'm curious as to how you found a badger willing to put up with you." the boy said and then turned to harry with a charming smile. "hello, i'm theodore nott but please call me theo."

"hello theo, i'm harry potter." harry replied, shaking the boy's cold hand. 

"now please harry, how do you deal with this one for a whole day?" theo asked and just like that one friend turned to two.

halloween came with a sense of unease for all. harry never celebrated at home and he had no intention of starting at school. instead he, theo and blaise had put on their warmest jumpers and spent the time of the feast down by the lake, blaise and harry playing gobstones whilst theo read next to them. theo turned out to be a bit of a whiz kid and was always reading something though he often hid his muggle books behind magical covers for reputations sake. slytherin seemed to be split into two groups in their year and theo had reported to harry the mounting tensions meant he had to be careful when showing his ideas or beliefs so charmed covers became essential.

half of them seemed to hold their loyalties with draco malfoy, blood superiority and tradition were so heavily emphasized and prejudice was encouraged. as theo explained it, the true slytherins lay with the rest of them who strove for greatness and who learned the subtlety needed to survive such a house. slytherins weren't loyal to their house first- at least not behind closed doors. it seemed that the house was almost directly in half with blaise, theo, daphne and tracey all in slytherin on their own merit and then draco and his goons that all fell for the supremacy. when harry asked why blaise and theo hadn't fallen into that the answers surprised him.

"my blood is worth more than anyone here, i'm italian royalty. if i was going to be a supremacist i'd have to be incredibly lonely- besides mother always told me about the importance of networking." blaise replied.

"muggle literature is simply better, if muggles were dirty and stupid then they wouldn't write so well."

when they went back into the school it was in uproar. a troll had been let into the school and a girl had been attacked. she was ok, just stuck in the hospital wing for the night but no one knew who had let it in or why. harry had overheard ron blame snape and say it was a distraction for the forbidden corridor but from what harry had heard ron was a bit of a conspiracy theorist, still seamus was hanging off his every word. it was stupid as far as harry was concerned, it was probably a seventh year with a poor sense of humour. mcgonagall came over to where the first years had been told to stand and called ron over.

"why did you not tell anyone that miss granger was missing when you first heard that there was a troll?" the head of gryffindor demanded. "mr potter, nott and zabini were all reported to be gone by their house mates yet in gryffindor you decided not to? i am absolutely disgusted with your behavior and will be writing home."

and with that ron turned right back to glaring at harry. he had laid off for most of the month as it became obvious that harry didn't care but apparently this threat was enough to reignite the red head's rage. blaise quirked an eyebrow whilst theo looked ready to bitch ron out. whilst harry would have loved to see that on any other day he'd be lying if he said he wasn't feeling a little bit raw. theo's dramatics were a thing of legend but for harry today was a day of mourning.

he loved his aunt and uncle and wouldn't know what to do without iris around but for harry halloween had always been a day of possibility. all he knew of his parents came from regulus and petunia who both admitted to not knowing much. he knew that petunia had been bitter to her sister as a child and whilst she had grown to regret it a lot of her memories of lily potter were laced with jealousy and misinterpretation. he knew his mother was unendingly kind but he also knew she was fickle, he knew she would be loyal to the end but also that she had been short tempered and ruthless. harry loved to hear petunia's early stories of lily before hogwarts but the stories of during were fewer and less pleasant, the ones after were non-existent. he liked that his mother was flawed because she wasn't some mysterious hero, she was human. she was his mum. james was hard to hear about. for petunia and regulus he tore their families apart but still they tried to be kind for harry's sake. he wasn't stupid, he knew that his dad had taken so much from those who raised him. but he also knew he had never meant to. for petunia magic had taken her sister before james had had the chance and for regulus he had understood why someone would leave everything for james potter, he would have too if the man had asked. so harry wondered who he would have been if he had been raised by the two ghosts that had haunted him since he learnt their names.

that night sprout came to the common room to see harry. she asked why he had not been at the feast and offered him sweet, milky tea and told him stories till his eyes drooped and she told him that the best hufflepuffs are the ones who find kindness in other houses. she told him of a boy in the lions den who could do with a friend or three. that there was a kind boy with clumsy hands and a grandma but no parents who knew exactly how to look after any plant but could barely use his wand. and harry promised that his heart had room for one more friend and he went to bed with a heavy but full heart. and things were okay. and things were going to be okay.

theo was pretending to read hamlet again as they sat in the library with neville explaining the most recent herbology lesson. harry knew that theo was actually paying attention to what neville was saying but theo enjoyed the pretentiousness of acting like he could understand shakespeare, theo was eleven so he definitely couldn't. harry also knew that theo was too proud to admit he needed neville's help in herbology. blaise had told harry a couple weeks before that theo wasn't actually that mysterious he just liked everyone thinking he was. theo was smart but he liked people thinking he was smarter so he acted quiet and carried thick heavy books that he didn't understand and wrote overly flowery poetry when in reality theo was just an overly artsy guy who bitched like no one harry had ever met. their little quartet had gained a reputation in the school for being a mystery, ron had started following them around to figure out their evil scheme when all they really did was help each other on homework and talk about quidditch. 

ron seemed to have his fingers in many pies for investigation though. neville had revealed the boy's obsession with the forbidden corridor and the giant dog that lay behind it. harry thought it was crazy that anyone had snuck in there, let alone decided to investigate it. they often overheard seamus and ron in the library discussing whatever plan they thought snape had cooked up next or how to get past a cerberus. harry thought it seemed stupid and apparently so did theo because he closed his book with a loud bang.

"merlin's beard you idiots! music!" theo snapped, earning a pointed cough from the librarian. "play music and a cerberus will go to sleep, it's common knowledge idiots."

they left quickly.

christmas was a much needed break for harry. he was glad to be home and to see his family. unfortunately he knew for his friends it was far less joyous. neville had to struggle with a grandmother who only wanted him to be his father, a man who he didn't know and never had done. theo had to deal with a near empty house and a father he wouldn't talk about. blaise loved his mother dearly but christmas meant his step-father would be around. so harry spent longer than he wished worrying about his friends till his family noticed.

"what is it harry?" petunia asked after the first week home, it was evening and he was playing chess with regulus whilst iris had gone to bed.

"i'm just worried about my friends." petunia and regulus exchanged a look, the type that only adults did, the kind that made kids worried.

"why?"

"neville's grandma always compares him to his dad and it makes him sad." harry started. "blaise doesn't like his step-dad and that might ruin christmas for him."

"and theodore?" regulus asked softly. he was looking at one of the tattoos on his arm and not harry which didn't ease harry's nerves.

"i don't know. he doesn't talk about home but he was worse than usual before he went home and he didn't bring his books home." harry explained, thinking back to the weird behavior his sneakiest friend had shown before break. even blaise had been worried.

"so invite them over for the day." petunia ordered. "there's no point of all of you moping around like this. it's completely ridiculous."

"yes, boxing day should do it. then it'll be only a week before you see each other again."

so on boxing day the house was filled with laughter and chatter and iris demanding her cousins friends play with her. if harry had bet on who would be good with iris he would have said neville would be the best and theo would be downright awful but he couldn't have been more wrong. theo made a huge fuss of his little cousin, calling her only princess iris, whilst neville had seemed terrified of the little girl. blaise was the best with her though. she had taken one look at the slytherin and latched on to him and like anyone who stroked blaise's ego she found herself greatly rewarded. whilst they all played together harry couldn't help but notice the way regulus would come in and watch on, if he didn't know better he would say his uncle was amazed by how happy they were. he was almost definitely wrong though.

school continued as normal for harry. draco began to leave him mostly alone whilst ron continued to glare and poke at every opportunity but harry had friends he loved so it hardly bothered him. exams came by quickly but they weren't stressed, in fact the only change was that theo went from reading sartre to scamander, harry assumed that meant he was stressed but it could have just been to comfort neville (when asked theo replied that he was looking into getting a pet). but soon even exams were done with and they were free to enjoy the sunshine. it was the evening after their final exam that things went wrong. they had planned to go up to neville's dorm after dinner as he wanted to show them the book his grandmother had bought as a well done for sitting his exams but they never got there.

the problem with having such a big school with a moving staircase is that it's near impossible to navigate at the best of times and so when they climbed the stairs they found themselves further and further from gryffindor tower. it felt like they spent hours and hours wandering the school, the longer they wondered the more they grew concerned. none of the quartet could really recognise where they were and so had no choice but to keep going up and down various staircases before finally they were sure it was dark out and way past the time they had to be at their dorms. this was when they were cornered and faced by a single door. blaise bravely stepped forward and opened it. in they went.

"so, how's your singing theo?" blaise broke the silence. the cerberus blinked at them looking quite shocked.

"passable."

"you may want to start now then."

harry was once more shocked at the nonchalance of his slytherin friends, they never seemed particularly phased by anything.

theo's voice was more than passable and more to the point kept the dog asleep. that was where the good luck ended as the door had locked them in with the creature. the only way was onwards through the trapdoor.

neville saved them from the next task before they could even begin to fear it.

blaise caught the key in seconds, he bashfully admitted that whilst good at it he truly hated quidditch.

then the chess set came to life. then blaise told them what to do. then he fell. and. harry. couldn't. breath. time slowed. and it sped up and theo completed the game and promised he'd look after blaise and explained he knew a bit of healing and harry and neville had to go ahead but blaise wasn't moving and there was blood and all harry could feel was the blood in his veins and his ears and he didn't know what to do and he wanted to go home. and he was so sorry.

sorry.

blaise.

but logic came next and only one could go on. so after a few minutes harry was left to go on through the flames and face.

quirrel. what?

for years afterwards harry would struggle to explain what happened from then on, he knew his scar hurt and that you-know-who was there but all he had felt was panic. there was a mirror and something was supposed to come from it but it never did because harry didn't want the stone. he wanted to go home. but his teacher was dead and he couldn't do anything and he woke in the hospital wing with the head teacher saying a load of stuff but all he wanted to know was.

"how's blaise?"

the headteacher's eye twitched, not his usual twinkle but something closer to annoyance.

"just fine my boy. and for the incredible bravery you showed i want to give you an option." the sparkle returned. "you can move to gryffindor without the hat ready for next year. your parents would have been so proud of you for your bravery and what better way to commemorate it. it has made you quite unpopular as a hufflepuff with friends who are mostly slytherin"

"my family is proud of me where i am, why would i want to change?"

"your parents-" dumbledore started but harry glared back

"are dead. i can't live for the dead, that's not right."

"and how do your uncle and aunt treat you, if you have any issues we can remove you and place you with a good wizarding family like the weasleys..." dumbledore said kindly.

"my uncle and aunt are great, they support and love me." harry replied stubbornly.

"your uncle is a death eater harry and you quite sure?"

"my aunt is a muggle, do you know many death eaters who'd marry muggles?"

dumbledore kicked out by the matron quickly after that and that evening harry was free to go to enjoy the feast. he made a point of sitting at the ravenclaw table with his friends and sue li. he didn't need anyone insulting his family or his friends, wasn't the point of hufflepuff loyalty? 

gryffindor won the cup due to whatever it was ron had been investigating but harry ignored it and enjoyed the last evening with his friends before he returned home for the summer. he was looking forward to getting home and having regulus's cooking and petunia's music playing and no one telling him who he should like or what to wear. it had been a long year and harry was ready to go home.

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> I know that Sprout is way more present for Hufflepuff than McGonagall is for Gryffindor in the book but it's my own personal headcanon about the heads of houses. I think that the head of Hufflepuff would be very involved in her house, the head of Ravenclaw would encourage students to come to them for any academic concerns (both random bouts of curiosity and for school concerns), the head of slytherin would hold a meeting every start of year basically telling them not to screw up, and then the head of gryffindor would encourage them to get on with things as that's the best way to encourage both bravery and curiosity but they'd still have their office door open for their students.


End file.
